A home for the CryptoSisterhood

I have a confession to make. I'm coming out into the open. I'm a woman. And apparently I'm rare in the cryptocurrency world. Or should I say, I'm part of an elite minority of women in the cryptocurrency world. Recent (April 2014) surveys indicate that only five percent of crypto enthusiasts are women. I had no idea it was that skewed. Now I understand that it's not just my gender neutral moniker that caused a number of people communicating with me on the Bitcoin Forum to call me “brother!” Their odds of being right on the gender were 19 to 1.

Various concerns have been raised about this massive gender inequality, and some women have shared horror stories about how they were treated by many of the men in this world. I am happy to say that I have not experienced any mistreatment or difficulties whatsoever from being female, and being in the minority (approaching things with the woman's touch) has probably greatly benefited me. Not only that, my favorite crypto, Devcoin, while designed and invented by men, very well could have been created with women in mind. It certainly works well for us.

In any case, I am thrilled to report that there are people out there who are working hard to reduce the gender gap in cryptoland. First they created a cryptocoin, DNotes, which is specifically geared to women (though I'm not exactly sure how one gears a cryptocoin to either men or women). Then they launched CryptoMoms last week and a forum to go with it.

I learned about CryptoMoms yesterday and have joined the community and I can't wait to see where it goes. It will be so nice to have more female company. I think we women bring a unique and valuable perspective to the table. Not only that, we collectively make more than half of the household spending decisions, so the cryptoworld is really missing out without us. I also plan to educate myself more on DNotes and see if I want to own more than the initial few I've amassed in various giveaways. DNotes trade on the AllCoin exchange so I had to get my wallet address there as I don't want to have yet another PC wallet.

Since I've been in the cryptoworld for a year now and have learned A LOT, I'm more than happy to share my experiences and perspective with the women who are brand new to this world. And I hope to learn from the others too. I've encountered at least two other CryptoMoms forum members who have websites similar to mine where they write about their journey and share useful tips they have picked up along the way. No matter how much experience I gain myself, I will always be able to learn from someone else's experience. one of these days I'm going to compile a list of all such websites and share them on a page here. Stay tuned. If you happen to be reading this and own such a website, then please share it in the comments section. We can start the list going right now :)

The most prominent investment bias I am encountering on the CryptoMoms forum is similar to the view I held when I first got involved with Bitcoin. The idea was to amass as many Bitcoins as I could–buy them at a low price if I bought them, otherwise earn them–and then hold onto them while their value climbed. At some point in the future I would be able to cash them out and fund some significant purchases such as my children's college education. This view is being promoted on CryptoMoms with the difference that it includes amassing plenty of alt-coins with the caveat to of course conduct due diligence. But the idea is simple: buy low, hold for the long term, and one day cash out when the value has grown by hundreds or thousands.

There is certainly nothing wrong with that strategy, but I believe it is important that people realize it's not the only viable strategy out there. I also think that although it's unlikely, there is still the chance that the cryptoworld could completely collapse in the near future. In that unlikely scenario I would feel better about losing everything still tied up in it if I'd taken out some profits along the way and used them to better my life now. Then at least I would be left with that.

My strategy is basically to cash out half of my cryptocoin earnings on a regular basis and add that to the family income, while holding onto the other half and either hoarding it or investing it within the cryptoworld. I don't always stick to the ratio, but that's my guiding principle.

Of course, in order to have that strategy, I need to be earning my cryptos from somewhere. That somewhere is a combination of my work for the Devtome and my other writing clients who pay me in cryptos. I advocate earning rather than buying one's cryptos wherever possible.

The Devtome is a self-sustaining project where its “employees” are paid for their work in Devcoins. CryptoMoms and other online properties which the founders of DNotes plan to launch can operate in a similar manner. People who become active forum administrators or otherwise provide valuable services to the project can be paid in DNotes, and then those earning the DNotes could follow a similar strategy I have with Devcoins. I believe the founders of UFOcoins at least plan to set up a similar type of situation in which they will pay contributors for their stories of alien sightings and experiences.

That's the beauty of cryptocurrencies. If you want something done that you value, but which society in general doesn't value, you can create your own cryptocurrency and then use it to pay people who work for you.

This brings me to a major brainwave and I hope someone actually takes this and runs with it. What is one thing that most agree society (at least in the US) does not value nearly enough? Education. Look at how poorly public school teachers are paid. What if someone set up a school and paid its teachers with a cryptocurrency he or she created? Of course, there are fundamental issues which will determine the viability of said currency, but in essence, it would allow for a greatly expanded source of funding for education. If it's planned and implemented correctly I see no reason why it can't really take off. There might not even be a need to create a new currency, as it may be possible to do so with a Devcoin bounty.

In any case, I'm excited about connecting with more women in Cryptoland. Great things can happen when a bunch of intelligent and talkative women start networking and bouncing ideas off each other. I anticipate lots of new and amazing business ventures, investments and movements and other wonderful things to come out of CryptoMoms.